The Whole Wide World

It was around -40F with the wind chill bringing it to -54F today. This is a tad warmer than it has been and in turn allowed for activities at Phoenix (the ice runway) to resume today. Those activities revolve around getting the runway prepped. The flight that was due last weekend will attempt to make the journey tomorrow. It’s a mix of feelings on station. Some are anxious for the flight to come, because they head out on the return journey. There are some of us though who will remain here and continue to work and for us the emotions seem to be a bit more complicated. Change is almost never easy. The plane will bring 118 new faces, almost doubling our little winter community in one flight.

I had to submit an update in store hours to our site manager today. The new hours aren’t terribly different from what I’ve had all winter, but the store will open a bit earlier and in turn close a bit earlier. The biggest change for me comes on September 18th, when my boss back in the States arrives on the ice. We will share an office for a month and while I’ve done my job all winter and completed the tasks that were asked of me, there has been almost complete autonomy in my role and to have a supervisor on site for the final month of my deployment, well, it will be a change that’s all.

I resumed my to-do list practice today and was able to find the motivation to get everything checked off for the day. That included my morning yoga and a trip to the gerbil gym. I also had my second Zoom appointment with a therapist back in the States. The program/work provide this service at no cost and to be honest I am wondering why on Earth I didn’t take advantage of this since day one. If I had to name a regret for my time here, it would be that, not taking advantage of free weekly therapy sessions. I will, however, meet with her weekly from now until I leave. Naturally, I have lots of anxiety around all the change coming up, both on ice and off ice and talking to an objective professional is no doubt helpful in untangling all of my thoughts, feelings and emotions around everything.

Four more days until our first sunrise. Can’t wait to see that number one sky orb!